Paul Conway.

I’ve drunk in the Concourse before when pub was too busy- it was cheap until 2 or 2.30? Can’t remember. Would need better beer and somewhere a bit warmer to make it a first choice option.

 

Some where to sit would also help.

 

I wonder how the local pubs feel about all this tbf I imagine some of them rely heavily on the football traffic.

I am glad work has begun on the zone and looking forward to trying it out for the first couple of weeks.

 

What was the price of beer in Accrington's Fanzone and what variety did they have? I would imagine it will be along the same lines.

 

I use my cousins Community owned Club when in down in Poole. Down South they normally tighten the pump so that
they can fill the glass to the very top. When he comes North, he can't understand why us " grockles" as he calls us,
insist on having a head on our pint. He says if they did that down their way, people would complain
that they weren't getting a full measure.

I don't know whether I was being overly critical, but the draught lager tasted flat to me, so I went onto bottles of Peroni. Their brewery lease them the building at a peppercorn rent and supply their wines, beers, spirits, crisps and nuts on a cash basis a month in arrears. They have three fruit machines and a juke box, so they generate some much needed income from them.

The members have a rota whereby volunteers take it in turns to serve and collect and wash empty glasses and they also sell sandwiches, pies and peas or scampi and fries. Profit from all sources are ploughed back into the Club. They also have a rota for cleaning duties. Nobody gets paid a penny and two members keep the books up to date, ready for the end of year audit. It's a great facility for the local community and is well used during the week and is usually full at the weekends when they have a live act on the Saturday night.

 

2 pound

 

As long as you're alreight. I think we'd make more money on decent beer that sit down meals. Who goes to a restaurant pre-match?

 

I was thinking post match actually. Somewhere where you could make an evening of it.
If the only aspiration to making Oakwell "the centre of town" is cheap ale well, it's a sad statement.

 

Would you have a sit down meal at 5pm on a Satdi? I know I wouldn't. The two things that will attract the majority of supporters (i.e men) to Oakwell is decent beer and football on a big screen. We need to attract families too but the main demographic is groups of lads and blokes.

 

That little corner shop at the top of the hill that leads onto Grove Street (before you start dropping down to the ground ), used to do an absolute bomb in the sale of pop, crisps, snacks , cans and cigs etc, when I used to call in with my lad pre-match.

They had different types of sweets ready weighed out to sell to fans. We couldn't get past that shop at one time, without a quarter of Yorkshire Mixtures or Poor Bens.

I feel sure that similar products apart from tobacco of course, could be available for sale at the ground at "realistic " prices and would probably also prove to be very popular. We used to buy all our confectionary for Wakefields Youth Club coffee bars from Bookers Cash and Carry at Castleford and the mark up prices, ensured that we could sell at prices lower than the nearest local stores and still make a healthy profit.

 

I might do. Have done often enough. Did it at Eddie Rockets in Dublin a few weeks back. There's restaurants at shopping centres all over the place that are busy all day long.
The main demographic might well be lads and blokes. The idea is to expand beyond that.

 

The old social club used to be good back in the day, had our wedding reception in there, open every night with various things going off during the week. A lot of locals ( I was one ) used it and on match days it used to get rammed and players used to come in after the match for a pint (or 2 ). I don't know if it would still work in this day and age and it would cost to build a new one but if they could create something similar on match days, starting with a marquee and working up to a permament structure if it took off at a later date.

 

Sorry, it wasn't meant in any way to be a sideswipe at Redfearns. I've never been in as it's not really my thing but Oakwell desperately needs a social club of some sort, bigger the better.
What I'm trying to get at is that Oakwell is unused 13 days out of 14. I genuinely don't know if the space is there but a couple of bars and restaurants could draw more people to the place not just on match days.
I think the club do a good job in trying to draw the community into the club but it would be nice if the area around the ground could become more vibrant and the club gain a higher profile along with it.
Maybe I'm being unrealistic.

 

Yep, I'm not totally convinced it would work. I'm looking at it from the point of view of getting more people in and around the club on a more regular basis than as a pure commercial venture.
However they choose to try to grow the club though is going to cost money.
And, yes, next time I'm over I'll make a point of popping into Redfearns.

 

Why do that when you can just go into TARN and get pissed.

 

Also as I've asked Gally to raise at a future Fans forum meeting, we need additional shelves on the
walls and on the support pillars where you can at least put your drinks. It's difficult to eat a pie or a burger
whilst holding a hot drink, as the existing limited shelf space is taken up very quickly. We never buy any food
for that reason . We sometimes never even buy a drink. Looking round, there's also quite a few fans who
bring their own sarnies, pop and or flasks of hot drinks.